- KLAMATH FALLS, Ore.
(AP) - County commissioners refused Thursday to back up farmers and residents
who use civil disobedience to reopen an irrigation canal closed to protect
endangered fish.
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- On Wednesday, about 100 people used a chain saw, their
bare hands and a cutting torch to open one of the six headgates holding
back the waters of Upper Klamath Lake. They complained that the waters
were not reaching their fields.
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- In a meeting with Klamath County commissioners, about
75 people who presented a petition with 2,000 names asked for a county
ordinance giving legal protection to nonviolent civil offenders who try
to open gates on the federally owned Klamath Project.
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- "It's time to step up to the plate," said farmer
Paul Arritola, who said he has lost $200,000 because he can't irrigate
his pasture. "We're saying our ranches are dying and we intend to
do something about it. If we do end up in some civil disobedience, we expect
you to be on our side."
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- Commissioner Al Switzer said such an ordinance would
have no worth because federal courts have struck them down elsewhere. Commissioners
also said that they have sought assistance for farmers and have urged U.S.
Interior Secretary Gale Norton to overturn the federal government's position.
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- The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which owns the irrigation
system, is considering whether to call in federal marshals to protect the
headgates.
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- "We have a responsibility to follow the law,"
said Bureau of Reclamation spokesman Jeff McCracken.
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- The lake and Klamath River are home to sucker fish and
coho salmon, which are protected under the Endangered Species Act.
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- Because of a severe drought that further threatened the
fish, the bureau in April 2001 began to reduce the amount of water diverted
into the irrigation system.
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- Farms and ranches on 240,000 acres in the Klamath Basin
have been forced to sell off cattle, let pastures turn brown, and give
up contracts to grow potatoes.
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- Wednesday's incident was the third time in a week that
the headgate had been opened in defiance of the Endangered Species Act.
The water flowed for about four hours Wednesday before the Bureau of Reclamation
closed the headgate.
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- A representative of commercial fishermen who won a lawsuit
forcing the Bureau of Reclamation to provide water for Klamath River salmon
said he expected the federal government to enforce the law.
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- "If our boats had crossed the line into the Klamath
Zone where they are forbidden from fishing, the Coast Guard would have
been right there arresting folks," said Zeke Grader, executive director
of the fishing group. "I don't see why we are not seeing similar arrests
here. Mollycoddling of terrorists is the best way I can describe it."
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